In Medias Res
by Shanny-Boo
Summary: A KH3 fic. BBS and Coded spoilers abound! Sora, Riku and Kairi narrate their journeys to Aqua... However, with the return of a former foe, their story is far from over. Kaiora, multiple other pairings.
1. Ex Exordium

**First of all, I can't believe I am actually writing this. It has been so long since I actually sat down and wrote fanfiction. You can blame my friend Izzy for this fic entirely. In fact, I am uploading this on her birthday. So tell her happy birthday if you review :D Even though by the time she reads this it won't be her birthday. Stupid time difference.**

**I promise I'll try and finish this- I'm more of an oneshot/drabble writer, but I feel… really compelled to write this. And yes… I am doing this a little… differently, so to speak. Think FFX. Hehe. **

**BBS and Coded/Recoded spoilers abound- actually, the more you know the secret ending and the ending of Coded, the better, because I'm not rewriting those scenes. –lazy-**

-x-

Aqua stretched as she sat up in bed, yawning a bit as she rubbed the tiredness from her eyes. She had fallen asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow last night, and she couldn't recall how long she had been sleeping. Although she usually prided herself on being an early riser, she found it really didn't matter to her, considering the hell she had just been rescued from. She peered out the window of the gummi ship with her bright blue eyes, and tilted her head as all she saw was stars. Well, they had warned her it would be a long trip to Radiant Garden, but the Keyblade Master was now beginning to wonder if she had really slept much at all.

She walked out of her small room and navigated her way to the common room of the rather spacious ship, and much to her surprise found Sora, Riku, and Kairi to be awake, laughing at some joke, but their laughter died quickly and quietly when Aqua poked her head into the room. She immediately regretted doing so- what was she doing, bothering them. They had rescued her, yes, and she guessed she could consider them to be friends, but she felt like a bit of an intruder, an outsider.

"Aqua?" Kairi was the one to finally speak up, breaking the awkward silence. Aqua smiled slightly as she noted the grin on the young girl's face was still the same from long ago. "Are you okay? Did you sleep well?"

"Yes and yes…" Aqua replied slowly, stepping through the doorway to stand there. She wondered if she would ever get used to the fact that she didn't age in the dark realm. The young children she had remembered meeting were all grown up now, only a few years younger than herself, at least in appearance. She guessed she could still technically say she was ten years older than them, having been around that long. The blue-haired young woman figured she might as well come out and say what had been on her mind. After saving her, the young trio along with Mickey, Donald and Goofy had bombarded her with a series of questions, and she ended up telling her entire story… yet… She never got around to asking her own. Although she was patient, she needed to know a few details… To get back into the loop, and most importantly to her, find her own friends. "If it's alright with you, I, ah, have a few questions." Aqua said, sitting down as Riku motioned for her to sit next to him on the couch.

"Okay." Sora said brightly, displaying his usual cheesy grin. "Shoot!"

"Well," Aqua mused over which question to ask, and decided to get the one with the longest answer out of the way first, "however did you find me, exactly?"

"It's a bit of a long story." Sora said, putting his hands behind his head in his trademark pose, looking from Riku to Kairi to see if they were up to telling about their adventure with him. The two nodded eagerly, and Sora looked over at Aqua with a wide smile. "It all began when…"

-x-

"So… wait… I don't have to defeat anyone this time? Just find some people?" Sora said, scratching his head as he held the message in the bottle the king had sent him in his other hand, thinking over what Mickey just told him. Really, all he had known for the past few years was slaying Heartless and Nobodies… and sleeping, for one year of course. Well, no, he did find Kairi and Riku! …Completely by accident though. Not that he was willing to admit that.

Mickey paused for a second before replying. "Well, ya might." The mouse king hesitated before continuing, "Ya see Sora, I don't know exactly what happened to Aqua or Ven, there may be someone to defeat to save 'em, but like I said, I don't know for sure." He sighed, "And as for their friend Terra, Aqua only mentioned him before she and Ven disappeared. I can only guess what happened to him." Mickey looked up at the Keyblade Master, though, a hopeful smile on his face. "I'm not just sendin' you out to find my friends, but they are the key to reconnectin' all the others that have been lost. Besides, I'll be out lookin' for 'em too."

"Others?" Sora asked, now looking extremely confused as he set the bottle down on the dashboard of the gummi ship. "What others?"

"You'll find out soon enough." Mickey said and Sora crossed his arms and pouted a bit, not amused by the fact he was being left in the dark.

"Aw, c'mon Sora, we don't know much either." Goofy said from the pilot seat of the gummi ship (Donald wanted to drive this time, but none of them were dumb enough to let him), "In fact, we only remembered about the other keybladers when we made a difigalized-"

"-digitalized." Donald corrected, wagging a finger at Goofy.

Goofy nodded in agreement. "That's it! A digitalized form of Jiminy's Journal and Namine told us that you'd have to reconnect everybody."

Sora sighed, this was all just so confusing and it was somewhat hard to believe that the King would just up and forget some friends like that. But… he was pretty busy, so it was understandable. There was also a memory that was too fuzzy to remember yet distinct enough that it could have been false, but Sora recollected some people, mainly a man and woman, who appeared on the islands for a short while and were never seen again. Could they possibly be the keybladers Mickey was talking about? After all, up until his adventures years ago, no one left Destiny Islands. Ever. Yet here he was, leaving for a second time, so it wasn't entirely impossible. The Keyblade Master winced at the thought of leaving Riku and Kairi back on the islands, but Mickey had stated this was a mission for Sora alone, despite addressing his letter to the three of them. However, Sora put on his usual optimistic grin and looked over at his friends. "So, where are we headed first?"

Mickey pointed out the window to a large world that was looming closer and closer. "Radiant Garden, of course! It was in its prime around the time Aqua, Ven and Terra went missin', so I'm wonderin' if there are any clues there."

"Makes sense." Sora said, putting his hands behind his head in his usual pose.

After an argument about Donald telling Goofy he was landing the ship wrong only to have Chip and Dale come over the intercom and assure Goofy that he was doing just fine and Donald needed to shut his beak (to which Donald replied furiously that it was a _bill_), they landed safely in the gummi ship yard of Radiant Garden. Even since his last visit, the world looked considerably less destroyed and… gloomy. Sora smiled at this as he walked out of the ship with Donald and Goofy.

"Now where are we looking first, Your Majes… huh?" Sora asked, but blinked in surprise as Mickey had already disappeared from the group. He looked around- the King was there just a moment ago and it couldn't be too hard to lose an oversized mouse in a crowd.

Donald shook his head. "He probably came to follow some secret lead."

"We'll probably catch up with him later." Goofy said optimistically. "Say, why don't we go pay a visit to Merlin, Leon and the others? Maybe they know somethin' about the other keybladers!"

"Sounds like a good idea." Donald agreed, looking up at Sora, who was still searching around for Mickey. "Aw, we'll find the King later. Let's go!"

Sora, Donald and Goofy proceeded to walk through the Bailey, and they were all quite surprised at how lively and inhabited Radiant Garden was in such a short amount of time. Granted, the world was on its way to its former glory before they left to defeat Xemnas… but this was something else. It made Sora feel a little proud that he had a hand in helping the world get back on its feet so to speak.

He was brought out of his reminiscing, though, when he saw someone that he'd never forget, not to mention see again, since… he was supposed to be dead.

"What are you doing here? What…" Sora said, shocked and surprised, as Donald and Goofy assumed defensive positions.

"Why are you so surprised, Sora? Unless no one told you that if a Heartless is defeated before their Nobody, that the person becomes whole once more… But now that you do know… I'd memorize that, if I were you."


	2. Carpe Diem

**Sorry for this taking so long, and sorry that this chapter is pretty much… boring. XD IT GETS INTERESTING LATER I PROMISE. I have it aaaaall planned out. **

**Prepare for lots of point of view switches, after the end of this chapter, you better be paying attention! ;D Thanks for the reviews/faves/alerts, by the way, I appreciate it.**

-x-

Sora could only gape, his mouth opening and closing like a fish a few times before he regained the power of speech. "Axel? What are you doing here? I thought you-"

"-nuh uh-uh. Not Axel. Lea." The fiery headed man corrected, jutting his thumb at himself. "L-E-A, got it-"

"-memorized. Yeah. We know." Sora said, waving his hand aside, having heard Axel's… Lea's mantra one too many times. "But what are you doing here, I thought you… y'know, died." He said, and Donald and Goofy nodded along with him.

Lea laughed, causing Sora to glare a bit. "I just told you a moment ago! If you defeat a person's Heartless and then their Nobody, in that exact order, BAM! Insta-heart." He said with his usual smarmy grin.

"But whatcha doin' here, Lea?" Goofy asked, since Sora was still a bit of shock.

Lea laughed. "Radiant Garden's my homeworld! Looked a lot better around ten or eleven years ago, though." He said, looking around casually. "But enough about me- the King told me you'd be coming here and asked me to distract you while he looks into… certain matters."

"Distract?" Donald quacked angrily, "The King wouldn't hide anything from us-"

"He would if it meant keeping some things in Ansem's files hush hush. Besides, he'll probably tell you… eventually. Not that that is important when you have other fish to fry. Namely, one Master Xehanort." Lea said, crossing his arms, a more serious expression on his face.

Sora gawked at him, "But we defeated both his Heartless and his Nobody! What else is there to…" He trailed off as the realization hit him like a ton of bricks. "You've GOT to be kidding me." The Keyblade Master had pieced together the information that Lea had repeated to him twice in the past ten minutes. The original Xehanort was now alive because he, the supposed hero, had defeated Xehanort's Heartless before his Nobody. Sora groaned- he had just undone everything he had defeated in the past two, now three, almost, years.

"Precisely. On top of remembering that they're in a load of trouble, why do you think King Mickey's making you go after Terra, Aqua and Ven?" Lea said, and paused for a bit of a dramatic effect before continuing, "Because a long time ago, they tried to face Xehanort, and they all lost. Three keybladers. As awesome as you are, if three couldn't beat him… one with a dog and a duck certainly couldn't." When Lea received nasty looks from all three, he hastily said, "No offense, or anything."

Sora clenched his hand in a fist, if what Lea was saying was true and three keyblade wielders couldn't beat Xehanort… then… no. He wouldn't let himself believe he was fighting a losing battle. For years, he was entirely optimistic about his journey, why stop now?

"You seem to know an awful lot." Donald said, crossing his arms and raising an eyebrow skeptically.

"Only what the King told me in a letter." Lea said, "Besides, he told me to tell you this while he looked into… other matters… of the Ansem kind." He said enigmatically, grinning. "I've probably talked to you long enough now, though. So wanna head on up to the castle? The King's probably done checking out Ansem's stuff."

"Sure." Sora said, wondering why the King had Lea stall them. If he was about to go save three keybladers from fates worse than death and destroy the enemy they couldn't defeat, shouldn't he know as much information as possible? He figured he'd ask the King- it wasn't as if he was about to get any answers out of Lea, anyway.

The four walked in silence, Sora deep in thought over the conversation he just had, Goofy cheerful as always, and Donald was glaring at Lea who was still rather nonchalant about the whole situation. Of course, though, silence never lasted in Radiant Garden, not when there was a certain ninja to interrupt-

"Sora! Donald! Goofy! About time you showed up!"

-the peace and quiet.

Yuffie jumped off a roof, twirling a shuriken while grinning widely. Lea crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow. "No hello for me?" He asked with a sly smile and Yuffie just shook her head.

"Nope~!" She said and then continued to ignore the redhead. "But hey, I was just chasing down a rather large Heartless, wanna help? I can't find it and I want to beat it up before the security system does!" Yuffie said enthusiastically, bouncing on her toes.

"Yeah!" Sora said, and let his keyblade materialize in his hand and twirled it. "What'd it look like?"

"It's one of those Morning Star ones. You know, the big green ones!" Yuffie said, stretching her arms out for emphasis.

"Oh, that's easy enough!" Donald said with a bit of an egotistical swagger, making the young ninja girl laugh, and Sora and Goofy snicker at the duck which was promptly silenced by a glare.

"Glad to hear it." She said, and pointed down the street. "I saw it go that way… but then it disappeared into some alleyway."

"Let's go find it then!" Sora said, and took off with Donald and Goofy, Yuffie not far behind. Lea sighed to himself, shaking his head, and promptly followed to catch up.

The group ran up and down the alleyways of Radiant Garden, but it was to no avail, they couldn't find the Heartless at all. "Aw, phooey, the King's probably waiting for us by now." Donald wailed, and Lea raised a red eyebrow at him.

"I thought you said that this would be… what was the word…" He feigned thought for a moment before he mocked a surprised expression, "Oh! _Easy_." Lea said, and Donald stomped his foot in anger.

"Yeah! Fighting it, not finding it!" The duck squawked.

Sora looked back and forth between the two, "Come on guys, don't fight."

"Sora's right. Besides, maybe it's jus' waiting for us to be caught off guard!" Goofy reasoned, and Yuffie nodded enthusiastically, practically jumping up and down.

"We'll never be caught off guard, 'cause I'm the Great Ninja Yuf…" She paused as she heard several large Neoshadows materialize behind her "…fie."

The Neoshadows weren't all that appeared though, dozens of Armored Knights surrounded the group and if more had done so, Sora, Donald and Goofy would have felt a bizarre sense of déjà vu. Sora quickly summoned his keyblade in his hand and jumped into the air and soared through the Armored Kngiths repetitively, only glancing at the sparkling hearts that drifted away into the sky.

Goofy rammed through a few Neoshadows, but soon had to deflect the large swords of the remaining Armored Knights while Donald launched an all-out offensive attack consisting of fire, thunder, and blizzard magic. Lea was using, much to Sora's surprise, frisbees instead of chakrams, although the boy supposed that after Axel faded he couldn't summon his previous weapon any longer. The redhead ducked to avoid a shuriken, narrowly missing one of his locks of spikey hair being taken off.

"Sorry~!" Yuffie called out in a sing song voice as she caught her shuriken after it cleaved a Heartless in two, the smoke of the creature still slightly coming off of her weapon.

"You don't sound sorry." Lea said with a grin as he did to her what she did to him, except with a frisbee, which was… considerably less harmful, but not to the Neoshadow behind her.

"Think we got 'em all?" Sora said, dismissing his keyblade as no more of the Heartless were in sight.

"You missed one!"

A voice called out and the sound of an Armored Knight being cleaved in two around the corner was heard, and the group of friends checked to see who had gotten the final Heartless.

"Nasty little wanderer. No biggie, though." The man said, strapping his long sword to his back and brushing some of his black bangs out of the way, revealing bright blue eyes and a small x-shaped scar on his cheek.

"Aw, Zack-

-x-

"Zack? Zack Fair?" Aqua said, interrupting Sora, looking thoroughly shocked.

Sora nodded. "Uhm, yeah. How'd you know?"

"I know him… and I could kind of tell it was definitely him by the way he talked and how you described him… spare the scar." Aqua said, and the three friends then took a turn to raise their eyebrows in surprise, and Aqua waved the matter aside with a hand. "I'm sorry, interrupting you was rude of me, please continue."

"It's okay, you're allowed to ask questions. We've asked a ton." Sora said with a smile, and then continued his tale.

-x-

"Aw, Zack, you ruined all my fun!" Yuffie said, crossing her arms and stomping her feet while giving the soldier a pouty-face.

Zack shrugged, "Sorry Yuff, maybe next time."

Yuffie looked around, left, right, behind her, even up and down. "Where's Cloud? He's usually with you."

"He's probably brooding in a corner somewhere." Zack shrugged, but then his face brightened and even though Zack was an adult, Sora couldn't help but be reminded of an excited little kid. "I did find someone else though!" Zack said, beaming proudly as he stepped aside to reveal the King.

"King Mickey!" Donald and Goofy cried at once while Sora looked a tad sheepish- they were supposed to meet up with him, not the other way around.

"Hiya fellas!" Mickey greeted brightly, and looked up at Lea. "I supposed ya filled 'em in?"

"Of course." Lea said with a bit of a swagger which was soon lost as Yuffie accidentally on purpose stepped on his foot, causing him to grimace and glare at her.

"Good." Mickey said, and took out a folded up piece of paper from his pocket and handed it up to Sora, who knelt down to take it. "This is an updated map of the worlds, there are some new ones on there that you haven't been to before. The ones I circled though are places I know Terra, Aqua and Ven visited, and I want you to go there and see if you can track down their whereabouts."

"Sure thing!" Sora said, and stood up, and then gave the King a questioning look. "Your Majesty, if you don't mind me asking… what exactly were you doing up at the castle?"

Mickey sighed and his round ears drooped a bit. "I'm sorry Sora, I can't tell ya, I was fufillin' out a promise made to Ansem that he wished to be kept a secret." The King smiled up at Sora. "You know it's important to keep a promise!"

Sora sighed before giving the mouse his usual lopsided grin as well. "Yeah!"

"Guess we'll be seeing you guys later then, huh?" Yuffie said, putting a hand on her hip."

"Sure thing!" Sora said, and walked off with Donald and Goofy beside him, unfolding the map, looking at the worlds which Mickey had circled. "Hmm… which place is the closest?"

"Well, that there Castle o' Dreams looks pretty close to me."

"Then that's where we'll go!" Sora said decisively, and the trio walked off towards the Gummi Ship.

-x-

"So you got to see Cinderella?" Aqua said, and looked reminiscent for a moment.

"Yeah." Sora said, putting his hands behind his head. "After we got there, we-"

"Woah, hold up." Riku said, stopping Sora's narrative. "You know Kairi and I did some traveling too. Can we tell our part?"

Sora looked miffed at his best friend's question. "Yeah, after I'm done-"

"Boys. Stop." Kairi said, sighing as she looked between the two, "Sora, I just think Riku means that chronologically it'll make more sense if we go back and forth than starting over. Right, Riku?" She said, fixing the silver-haired teen with a look that clearly said he better agree with her or else. Riku nodded and she looked back over at Sora. "Pleeeease Sora? I mean, we went to Radiant Garden the same time you did, you just didn't know!" Kairi said, and then gave Sora the look he did not want to see, the one he had officially dubbed The Princess Pout… which he was extremely susceptible to.

"Sure." Sora said, expecting the room to be silent so Kairi could start, but then realized the entire time the Destiny Islands trio was arguing, Aqua had been… laughing.

"You three remind me so much of…" She trailed off and her hand strayed to her pocket where she kept her charm, and the sapphire-haired Keyblade Master looked back up at Kairi, and then to Riku. "Now, how did your adventure start…?"

Kairi smiled. "Well…"

-x-

**Going to flip flop from Sora to Riku and Kairi, and then it's going to be back and forth… with Aqua occasionally interrupting cause she's cute like that. :P Anyway, next chapter you find out where that one Heartless went, and what Mickey was doing… along with Sora going to see Cinderelli, ahaha.**


End file.
